Jacob Rees-Mogg says Treasury ‘fiddling figures’ on Brexit

Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has said he believes Treasury officials are “fiddling the figures” on Brexit.

Earlier this week, the MP condemned an economic forecast on the impact of Brexit written by civil servants.

The leaked report said growth would be lower in each of three different Brexit outcomes than if the UK had stayed in the EU.

The Treasury said its ministers and officials were working hard to deliver the best Brexit deal for Britain.

Tory MP Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If you look at the forecasts the Treasury made before the referendum, they were a humiliation. They were clearly politically influenced.”

‘Politically advantageous’

He said former chancellor George Osborne had set up the Office for Budget Responsibility, which provides independent analysis of the UK’s public finances, because “Treasury forecasts had been politicised”.

“And it was thought they were unreliable on political grounds,” he added. “With the referendum and with the EU the Treasury has gone back to making forecasts. It was politically advantageous for them in the past. It is the same now.

“So yes, I do think they are fiddling the figures.”

A Treasury spokesman said: “The prime minister and the chancellor have said repeatedly that we will be leaving the single market and the customs union. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.”